This invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing a tar-containing liquid smoke impregnated casing of the fibrous reinforced dry stock cellulosic type.
Surface appearance and flavor are important factors in the commercial and consumer acceptance of processed meat products, and a common feature of most varieties of such products involves the use of "smoking" for imparting characteristic flavor and color thereto. The "smoking" of food products has been generally accomplished by subjecting the food product to actual contact with smoke in a gaseous or cloud-like form. Such "smoking" processes, however, have not been considered completely satisfactory for a variety of reasons, including the inefficiencies and lack of uniformity of the "smoking" operation. Because of the shortcomings experienced, many meat packers now employ various types of liquid aqueous solutions of wood-derived smoke constituents, commonly called "liquid smoke solutions", in the processing of many types of meat and other food products.
The application of "liquid smoke solutions" to meat products is generally carried out in a variety of ways, including spraying or dipping an encased food product during the processing thereof, but this is not completely satisfactory because of inability to uniformly treat the encased product. Another method is to incorporate the liquid smoke solution in the recipe itself, but this does not always provide the desired surface appearance because of dilution of smoke ingredients. Also, incorporation of liquid smoke in the recipe reduces the stability of the meat emulsion, and will adversely affect taste if high concentrations are used. Spray or dip application of liquid smoke to encased food products also causes unwanted pollution and equipment corrosion problems for the food processor. In addition, encased sausages treated by application of the liquid smoke during commercial processing have been found to yield sausages which are lacking in smoke color uniformity between different sausages from the same processed group. Even more undesirable is the lack of color uniformity which often appears on the surface of the same sausage, such as light and dark streaks or blotches, and even uncolored spots particularly at the sausage ends.
It has been found that casings which afford special treatment or structural characteristics to the food product can be more uniformly and economically supplied by the casing manufacturer.
Several methods of providing food casings with coatings applied to a surface thereof are known, as for example the spraying method for applying coating materials over the internal surface of small diameter casings. Another method is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,378,379 to Shiner et al., describing a "slugging" method for applying materials to the internal surface of large diameter casings. While these and other techniques have been used in commercial preparation of coated food casings, including liquid smoke containing coatings, to the best of my knowledge, none of these prior art coated casings have been commercially succesful in imparting a consumer-acceptable level of "smoke" flavor and color to a meat product processed therein.
I have also found by experiments that internal coating of casings with liquid smoke during the casing manufacture is not successful due to the inability to apply a uniform distribution of liquid smoke at the necessary loading level (smoke quantity) and at an efficient operating speed.
One object of this invention is to provide a method for manufacturing a liquid smoke impregnated food casing which is capable of imparting uniform smoke color, smoke flavor, and smoke odor to food processed inside the casing.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the ensuing disclosure and appended claims.